Recommended Blood Glucose Levels

We talk about carbs and diabetic diet info here, but we haven’t really covered the recommended blood glucose levels before. You can’t be on a low carb diabetic diet without having a target in mind, so knowing what your blood sugar should be is a pretty critical component in the overall picture. To get started, let’s talk about what types of blood glucose readings you will take, and then what those should be.

Fasting Blood Glucose

One of the two times to measure blood sugar is first thing in the morning, before you eat or drink anything. This is called your fasting blood glucose, and the recommended blood glucose levels for fasting are anything below 100. If your blood sugar reading is 101-125, you have prediabetes. A fasting blood glucose level of 126 or more is a diagnosis of diabetes. Experts are starting to discount the accuracy of a fasting blood glucose reading, though it used to be the first indication of blood sugar control issues. Now, the recommendation is the postprandial reading.

Instead of fasting blood sugar readings, try following the recommended blood glucose levels in a postprandial test. Postprandial simply means after eating, and is typically taken at one or two hours after a meal. The one hour reading is slightly more accurate, and has the added bonus of being easier to remember! For the postprandial reading, aim for anything under 140. 141-199 is prediabetes, and a reading of 200 at any time of day is enough to warrant a diagnosis of diabetes.

Recommended blood glucose levels have been determined after extensive research. While it can be tempting to fudge the numbers or discount a slightly elevated reading, if you get a reading in the prediabetes or diabetes range, you need to stop what you’re doing right now and work to improve your blood sugar control. It really is that serious. Prediabetes can actually be reversed, giving you a second chance at a healthy life, so pay attention to those recommended blood glucose levels and stay healthy!